Thursday, April 14, 2005

Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility

Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility: "A law of economics stating that as a person increases consumption of a product--while keeping consumption of other products constant--there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product.

Investopedia Says...
This is the premise on which buffet-style restaurants operate. They entice you with 'all you can eat,' all the while knowing each additional plate of food provides less utility than the one before. And despite their enticement, most people will eat only until the utility they derive from additional food is slightly lower than the original.

For example, say you go to a buffet and the first plate of food you eat is very good. On a scale of ten you would give it a ten. Now your hunger has been somewhat tamed, but you get another full plate of food. Since you're not as hungry, your enjoyment rates at a seven at best. Most people would stop before their utility drops even more, but say you go back to eat a third full plate of food and your utility drops even more to a three. If you kept eating, you would eventually reach a point at which your eating makes you sick, providing dissatisfaction, or 'dis-utility'.
"


Pleasures, enjoyment, lose their value with every helping, while each pain, discomfort hurts so much more with every installment.
Basic problem with human thinking perhaps.
Forgetfulness, then is one of those virtues I must say.
If I could look at every drop of water that’s leaked through my roof as the only one that has ever dripped on my face, would the drip worry me so much less?
If you can eat a chocolate like its your first chocolate in life, would you enjoy it so much more?
..I constantly wonder afresh.


PS: Will I drown in my own house before my stomach bursts due to excessive intake of chocolate?

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Take a Bow


MyFoot, originally uploaded by swapnild.

Well Dressed, My Foot

Potato Art


Potato Art
Originally uploaded by swapnild.

Sunday afternoon, Mokashi Residence
Volunteered to chop vegetables
Was forced to eat my own words in the end

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Its April and I am eating loads of pineapples...

Andy's Movie Quote Page: Chungking Express:

COP 223: "We split up on April Fool's Day. So I decided to let the joke run for a month. Every day I buy a can of pineapple with a sell-by date of May 1. May (his ex) loves pineapple, and May 1 is my birthday. If May hasn't changed her mind by the time I've bought thirty cans, then our love will also expire."

COP 223: "If memories could be canned, would they also have expiry dates? If so, I hope they last for centuries."


COP 223 goes shopping. Any canned pineapple that expires on May 1?

Cashier You know what day it is today?

COP 223: April 30?

Cashier Right. You think we sell outdated stock?

COP 223: There's still two hours to go.

Cashier Nobody would buy it. Get a fresh one.

COP 223: People like you are hung up on freshness. You realize what goes into a can of pineapple? The fruit must be grown, harvested, sliced, and you just throw it away! How do you think the can feels about that?

Cashier Buddy, I only work here. Who cares about how the cans feel? What about how I feel? Loading, more loading, unloading... How I wish cans wouldn't expire! It'd save me loads of work. You like expired cans? Help yourself! As many as you like! On the house!

223 leaves the store.

COP 223: Somehow everything comes with an expiry date. Swordfish expires. Meat sauce expires. Even cling-film expires. Is there anything in the world which doesn't?

COP 223: gives a can of pineapple to a passing street person. The street person looks at the can and throws it on the ground.

Street person It's expired. Don't want it.

COP 223: You sure?

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Time

The Cinema of Wong Kar-Wai@Everything2.com: "Time, to me, forever brings a loss of innocence. As you go through time, you are bound to look back with hindsight; you begin to reminisce about things that you dreamed about doing but didn't get to do, you begin to wonder what would have happened on that particular day if you had taken a different turn on the road. You have no answer for sure, but you are distressed by the possible outcome of things you didn't do. You cannot help but regret"
~Wong Kar-wai


Watched Days of Being Wild, Fallen Angels and Chungking Express back to back on sunday. Something I would never have to regret not doing.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Story that will make you believe in God

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Indian Coffee House, Jawaharlal Nehru Street, Pondicherry


"I arrived in the town of Pondicherry, a tiny self-governing Union Territory south of Madras, on the coast of Tamil Nadu. In population and size it is an inconsequent part of India-by comparison, Prince Edward Island is a giant within Canada-but history has set it apart. For Pondicherry was once the capital of that most modest of colonial empires, French India. The French would have liked to rival the British, very much so, but the only Raj they managed to get was a handful of small ports. They clung to these for nearly three hundred years. They left Pondicherry in 1954, leaving behind nice white buildings, broad streets at right angles to each other, street names such as rue de la Marine and rue Saint-Louis, and képis, caps, for the policemen.

I was at the Indian Coffee House, on Nehru Street. It's one big room with green walls and a high ceiling. Fans whirl above you to keep the warm, humid air moving. The place is furnished to capacity with identical square tables, each with its complement of four chairs. You sit where you can, with whoever is at a table. The coffee is good and they serve French toast. Conversation is easy to come by. And so, a spry, bright-eyed elderly man with great shocks of pure white hair was talking to me. I confirmed to him that Canada was cold and that French was indeed spoken in parts of it and that I liked India and so on and so forth-the usual light talk between friendly, curious Indians and foreign backpackers. He took in my line of work with a widening of the eyes and a nodding of the head. It was time to go. I had my hand up, trying to catch my waiter's eye to get the bill.

Then the elderly man said, "I have a story that will make you believe in God.""

Author's Note
Life Of Pi
Yann Martel

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Movie making at its best...

HERO-Ying xiong (2002):
"The imagery is unparallelled, simply draw-droppingly near perfect scenes, with bold and vibrant use of colour, symbolism and scenery. The fluent flow of the storyline, the delicate direction of the sword slicing action, the Chinese cultural concepts and the emotionally charged scenes between characters combine to produce a simply remarkable achievement."


Stunning cinematography. A must watch for anyone learning cinema.
Excellent use of colour.
Each scene is painted in a single colour.
It actually goes from gray to red to blue to white to green to black in that order.
Grander than anything I have ever seen on screen.
My favourite is where Nameless (Jet Lee) is fighting Sky.
Its raining and you can see each and every individual drop of water move. Old blind man is playing an string instrument as these to fight it out. Sky flicks the spear, droplets of water from a piece of cloth tied to it go spiraling into the air. Jet Lee Leaps. In slow motion you can see the water almost stationary in mid air as Jet Lee's face crashes through this wall of water. The tip of the sword piercing the rain.
Stunning...